The internal brand identifies what is important to an organization and why it exists. At RedKnight we talk about the internal brand as being made up of the vision, mission, values and company belief systems.

The external brand ultimately is how your customer perceives your company. It is influenced heavily by the company’s marketing message and the avenues it uses to spread the message. However, because experience impacts our perceptions more strongly and memorably than just words, the customer experience has an even stronger influence on the external brand.

We spend a great deal of time talking about the ideal situation – where the owner’s vision and values are built into the business from day one. But what do you do when a company has grown and has lost touch with their original values?

Have you ever had that moment when you suddenly had a core belief proven to be accurate? Or perhaps found proof that it’s not only accurate but also more important than you realized?

I had one of those moments. While reading Corporate Lifecycles by Ichak Adizes, I had my belief that small businesses are different from larger organizations both confirmed and explained. I don’t want to bore you with all the geeky details (if you don’t think this is geeky I suggest you read the book or ask me more about it when you see me) so I will summarize it simply by stating:

A popular concept in business literature is to surround yourself with the smartest people you can find. The corollary to this belief is to always hire the smartest people. This is an idea that I endorse– to a degree.

Following are three times when hiring the smartest person can create more problems than they solve.